Fraud and the

Trustworthy Supply Chain

Scott Cunningham

IAB Technology

1

What is a bot?

An Internet bot, also known as web robot, WWW robot or simply bot, is a

software application that runs automated tasks over the Internet.

Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally

repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human

alone.

- Wikipedia

4

How did this become a problem?

Money

PUBLISHERS EXCHANGES BUYERS AGENCIES MARKETERSPUBLISHERS EXCHANGES BUYERS AGENCIES MARKETERS

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What are we doing about it?

Guideline Topic Area

Accountability Mechanism

Supporting Efforts

The Trust Stack

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Anti-Fraud

(Steering)Anti-Piracy

Compliance / QAG

Business

Transparency

(Steering)Anti- Malware

EducationLegal

Trustworthy Supply Chain: Fraud

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• Anti-Fraud Principles released. 9-15-2014. Addressing business and

technical principles.

• Three workgroups covering safety in the supply chain.

1. Anti-Fraud Work Group. Technical work group looking at catching

bots in real time. Proposed taxonomy released 9-15 distinguishing

good intended machine traffic versus fraud.

2. Anti-Malware Work Group. Technical workgroup started in August

2014. Mission to identify sources of malware.

3. Business Transparency Work Group. Agencies, Platforms and

Publishers discussing money flow and business practices for

operations guidelines.

Trustworthy Supply Chain: Tactics and Certification

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• Education Work Group. Educating the industry on tactics and best

practices identified in other work groups and vendors.

• Blocklists.

• Quality Assurance Guidelines (QAG)

• 29 companies certified, 29 pending.

• Guidelines represent brand safety and transparency currently.

QAG + new Work Group Guidelines + Buyers = Joint (IAB, 4A’s, ANA)

Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG)

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What can you do about it?

Advertisers, Buyers, Publishers

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• A & B: Know the supply

sources and vendors.

Domains, content, audience.

Are they certified?

• A & B: Scale doesn’t equal

quality. Set expectations on

controls through T&C’s.

• A & B: If it is cheap and too

good to be true…it probably

is.

• P: Sales, Marketing, Ops

and Analytics…talk.

• P: Audience Extension is the

same as a trade desk.

• A, B, and P: Point solutions

are good. It’s one tool in

your toolbox is better.

scott@iab.net

Scott Cunningham

IAB Technology

http://www.iab.net/trustworthy_supply_chain